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Biotech / Medical : MEDX ... anybody following? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Icebrg who wrote (821)	6/2/2004 3:06:40 AM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2240

French biotech firm IDM eyes 99 mln euro IPO Wednesday June 2, 2:29 am ET PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) - French biotechnology firm Immuno-Designed Molecules (IDM) aims to sell about 37.3 percent of its capital in an IPO valued at 98.8 million euros ($120.7 million), the company said on Wednesday. The cancer treatment specialist, joining a string of European biotech firms seeking to list, said it would issue 8.1 million new shares at between 10.50 euros ($12.83) and 12.20 euros each. If there was enough demand, it might sell as many as 1.215 million additional shares, IDM said, adding that certain investors had also agreed an overallocation allotment covering up to 1.4 million extra shares. The final price of the offering will be announced on June 16 and the stock is expected to start trading on June 17 on Euronext's Nouveau Marche in Paris. Founded in 1993, IDM has developed a range of cell-based treatments to kill tumours as well as several "cancer vaccines" that fight the disease by stimulating immune response. In addition, French drugmaker Sanofi-Synthelabo (Paris:SASY.PA - News) would invest an extra 10 million euros in IDM as part of a deal the companies signed two years ago, at the same price as the IPO, IDM said. Two years ago Sanofi, which is buying larger rival Aventis (Paris:AVEP.PA - News), invested 20 million euros in IDM and said it would make the 10 million euro investment through an IPO of IDM or a private placing. Sanofi owns a 12.5 percent stake in IDM. Both companies signed a 10-year partnership in cancer drugs, including the development of skin cancer drug Uvidem which is in a Phase II trial. UBS (UBSN.VX) is the lead manager of the IPO, Oddo Securities is co-lead manager while Fortis is underwriting. The share placement will take place in France and abroad, chiefly in the United States, IDM said.

To: Icebrg who wrote (821)	6/2/2004 1:22:17 PM
From: A.J. Mullen	Respond to of 2240

Thanks for the response Erik. An immunologist-friend who attended a presentation on CTLA-4 and tumor immunotherapy wrote the following about the combination with a vaccine: I meant to say...I remember him showing X-rays of the results in lung tumours, they were probably the melanoma metastases, but they really were amazing. From my notes he said that the results of anti-ctla4 + GM-CSF were much more effective than either therapy alone. He also said (like in your abstract) that 2/14 patients were complete responders and had longterm complete clearance of tumours, whereas the rest of the patients were partial responders. I don't know how this compares to other therapies, but the cohort was people who had failed to respond to any other therapy. One of the criteria for NSCLC patients on recruitment to the Dana Farber study is that they have previously been treated with the GM-CSF vaccine. Ashley